Dungeon Boss: Be a boss! (review)

Overview

Dungeon Boss is a turn-based RPG mobile game available on both iOS and Android app stores. Dungeon Boss is the ideal game for casual gamers who only play while sitting on the toilet or right before bed. If you’re like me, you can’t stand the idea of having to pay money for a mobile game. This is where Dungeon Boss truly shines. Dungeon Boss is free to download and play. Despite having options to pay for in-game items, you can actually play and enjoy every facet of the game without having to spend a single dime. Dungeon Boss is free of advertisements unlike most free games in the app store.

Gameplay

Those familiar with Pokemon should feel right at home with this game. The game has both PvE (Player vs. Environment) and PvP (Player vs. Player) gameplay. The PvE consists of the campaign portion of the game. A team of four heroes is chosen to complete various chapters of the game. The PvP portion involves battling other player’s heroes. Beating your opponent results in gaining gold and scrolls. These two forms of currency can be spent in the store or the Portal for new items.

In my opinion, the most exciting part of the game is the Portal. There are three different options in the portal: Great Summon, Heroic Summon, and Honor Summon. Each summon costs a different currency: gold, gems, or scrolls. Buying these different summons grants you a mystery chest that contains new heroes, rare items, or gold. There is something inherently exciting about the anticipation of opening up a mystery chest and potentially unlocking a legendary hero.

The complexity of each hero is a major reason why Dungeon Boss is so great. There are currently 67 heroes in the game. Each hero starts off with only one special ability. New abilities (max of 3) can be unlocked by “ascending” their hero. Heroes are also assigned different elemental types such as fire, nature, water, light, and dark, just like Pokemon. Fire does 2x damage to nature, water does 2x damage to fire and so on. Heroes also have special passives which make them more suitable against certain team compositions. The uniqueness of every hero helps to create unlimited possibilities of developing your team.

Dungeon Boss has a very active community and gives you the option of joining a guild. These guilds are groups of 30 players that complete quests to earn valuable loot in the game. Guilds communicate through social messaging apps such as Kik and Line. Guilds are great resources for beginners to learn new strategies and optimize team compositions. As a member of several guilds, I can attest that the majority of members are very open to helping a newcomer.

Dungeon Boss is a visually beautiful game. The heroes have Lego-like designs and the game developers wasted no effort in the animations. The game takes advantage of the high definition screens of iOS and Android devices offering crisp animations and environment. However, the game seems to be optimized for iOS devices. I have noticed some stuttering of animations on Android devices but it is very minor.

Conclusion

I’ve been playing for about a year and haven’t gotten sick of it. The Dungeon Boss team does a great job of introducing new features and updates in the game. For someone with a full-time job, it is nice to cool off at the end of the day playing a game that doesn’t take too much of a commitment. If you find yourself with nothing to do while taking a deuce, go download Dungeon Boss. The only thing you’ll regret is sitting on the toilet for hours.